Friend in icy times of need: cold water scientist Giesbrecht retires from U of M

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This article was published 18/12/2023 (690 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Professor Popsicle” has shut the door on his classroom freezer.

University of Manitoba thermophysiology Prof. Gordon Giesbrecht — a leading authority on hypothermia, ice safety and cold-water immersion survival — taught his final class last week and has retired after 32 years at the Winnipeg-based school.

“I feel very fortunate that the research topic, which fell into my lap, became my career and, because it made sexy TV and sexy pictures, I was able to spread the message,” the 66-year-old said Monday.

“It’s a special blessing when the work we do, bringing information to increase public and professional knowledge, benefits society. I’ve had many people say they are alive today thanks to what they learned from me.”

Giesbrecht spent decades operating the U of M’s laboratory for exercise and environmental medicine (where he specialized in human responses in extreme environments) and teaching both the public and lifesaving professionals how best to survive a fall through lake/river ice or escape a vehicle sinking in a body of water.

Those unique, cold, hard facts — and a penchant for using his own body as a test subject — made Giesbrecht an available expert for media reports and brought him to the wider world via internet videos and appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and Rick Mercer Report.

In 2014, a Saskatchewan couple credited the knowledge they gleaned from the Mercer episode with saving their lives and the life of their 2 1/2-year-old son, after they escaped a partially submerged vehicle.

A specialist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources credited a work safety program course, which included a video of Giesbrecht teaching ice water immersion, with saving his life.

“I misjudged some ice and ended up plunging through… into ice-cold water over my head,” the U.S. employee wrote in a letter to Giesbrecht.

“Thanks to the knowledge imparted in your video, I did not panic, and found the situation to be more manageable than most people would imagine. I followed all your recommended steps… I don’t think it is an exaggeration to suggest I might not still be here if not for your video.”

“I’ve had many people say they are alive today thanks to what they learned from me.”–“Professor Popsicle,” Gordon Giesbrecht

Giesbrecht said he is gratified such stories — especially when, at one point, he had dropped out of university with no plans to go back.

“I hated it,” he said of his first year of post-secondary education. “I did very poorly… I was ready to quit in October, but I kept going.

“I received 37 per cent on my biology exam at Christmas, but I finished my first year and then I went to Edmonton for a few years. I had no intention of going back (to school).”

Giesbrecht became a wilderness guide, worked in construction and got married. (He has now been married for 42 years, with two daughters and four grandchildren.)

In the early 1980s, however, the construction industry was hit by an economic downturn and Giesbrecht decided to return to university, six years after he left.

“It’s a good thing I finished my first year because I had two years left to finish (his first degree). If I was starting from the beginning, I might not have done it,” he said this week. “I found if you work hard, you get better marks. I went from a 2.25 GPA (in the first year) to 4.25, and I graduated with a gold medal in my faculty.”

Giesbrecht obtained a master’s degree in physical education, followed by a PhD in physiology in 1990, before returning to the U of M as a professor.

“I had just been hired and they said I should apply for a grant with the Manitoba Health Research Council,” he said. “But the grant deadline was coming up fast, so where I had the most ideas was with my master’s research: cold.

“I got the grant, that decided my next two years, and I’ve been freezing ever since.”

Before Giesbrecht’s research, methods of escaping a sinking vehicle were not widely known — not even to 911 operators.

“People were getting into water and they now had cellphones, so they would phone 911,” he said. “They are horrible calls. All the operators could say was hang in there, you’ll be fine, help was on the way — and then listening to them drown.”

Giesbrecht said 911 operators in “60 per cent of the speaking world” now use his protocols to tell such people in trouble “SWOC: seatbelts off, windows open or broken, out immediately, children first, oldest to youngest.”

“I say, if you touch your cellphone (to call for help), you are dead,” he added.

Meantime, Giesbrecht’s idea of retirement isn’t to sit in a comfy chair and put his feet up. He is looking at going on a church mission to Kenya to help at a school that focuses on students living with special needs.

Professor Popsicle is also working on a book about his life and field of study (tentatively titled Cold Cases) and will continue writing up his cold-related research.

“I want to use this time while I am still here enjoying good health to do what I can to help people,” Giesbrecht said.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca